Katrina: What Bush Knew and When He Knew It

White House documents, reports the New York Times today, show:

"the White House was told in the hours before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that the city would probably soon be inundated with floodwater, forcing the long-term relocation of hundreds of thousands of people, documents to be released Tuesday by Senate investigators show.

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The internal department documents, which were forwarded to the White House, contradict statements by President Bush and the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, that no one expected the storm protection system in New Orleans to be breached."

As on 9-11, Bush was vacationing at his ranch when the storm hit, then flew off to California to strum guitar at a political fund-raising appearance. Chertoff decided to fly off to Atlanta. Then-FEMA chief, Michael Brown, was busy looking over the menu of a Baton Rouge restaurant.

As the New Orleans Times-Picayune asks today, "If the highest levels of the government knew the likely impact of Hurricane Katrina, why was the initial response so slow and uncoordinated?"

The answer is they just aren't competent at their jobs. We expect more from convenience store clerks and night motel managers. Why not our national leaders?

Amplification

Florida blogger "Bark Bark, Woof Woof" has more:

"After this news you kinda feel sorry for Mike "Heckuvajob" Brown, the former head of FEMA. He was the most visible symbol of the administration's incompetence, but he sure wasn't the only one."